We'll see how the victor Cruz situation impacts this number going forward if he agrees to a new deal before or right around the start of training camp, which begins on July 26th. the Giants are off until that time, so there will be plenty of time for Cruz and his agent, Tom Condon (who is also Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's agent), to talk turkey with the Giants' front office.
If Cruz doesn't report to camp on time, he'll be subject to fines. This is because he is now officially under contract by the team, as a result of his signing his tender for $2,879,000. If Cruz isn't in camp by August 6th, then he will lose a year's worth of eligibility towards unrestricted free agency. This happened to Titans RB Chris Johnson in 2011, even though it didn't really affect him that much. Here's an article about the topic:
"After Tuesday, Training Camp Holdouts Lose Year Toward Free Agency" - by Joel Thorman @JoelThorman on Aug 9 2011, 10:52 am
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The two dates to keep in mind for Giants fans going forward with respect to this situation are the following:
- July 26th
- The start of training camp.
- If he does not report on the first day, he'll be subject to $30,000 in daily fines.
- August 6th
- The date he can lose his eligibility for Unrestricted Free Agency in 2014 if he is not in training camp.
For what it's worth, Joel Corry feels that Victor Cruz will eventually cave in as per this twitter conversation between himself and Patricia Traina:
Odds are that the Giants are going to have to free up some money under the salary cap too, not necessarily for Cruz's new deal, but to give the team more breathing room under the salary cap for when the Top 51 Rule ceases. I addressed this issue a little over a month ago, back on May 10th in this post:
What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?
I'll say this: I don't think the Giants are going to cave in when it comes to how they're going to go about their business with respect to the Cruz and Nicks situations. They'll set a price, as I wrote about yesterday, and then stick to it pretty closely. If reports are true about the Giants increasing their offer to $8 million while Cruz is looking for $9 million, then salary guarantees, as opposed to bonus money, as Joel Corry states above will be key.
Up until now, I was thinking more about incentives being central to the situation, but what Patricia and Joel are saying about salary guarantees really does make sense when you think about it, since those guarantees are now being used more often, as Joel states. Keep an eye on how this situation changes because I have a hunch--just my opinion--that it'll carry over to the mid to latter part of July.
